If I'm Stopped For A DUI, What Should I Do?

Description

In this video Mr. Taylor talks about what a person can expect an officer to do when they are pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence and gives some general advice as to what a person should and should not do when they get pulled over. It is important to have a good attitude and be cooperative with the officer, but a person is not required to volunteer information. There is no law that requires a person to answer the officer's questions and whatever helpful things a person says will never end up in the officer's report anyway. Mr. Taylor strongly suggests that people not take the field sobriety tests because all they can do is hurt them. Also the officer may ask the person to take a PAS or PBT test, which is an alcohol sensor test. A person is not required to take this test unless they are under the age of twenty-one. If it is offered to a person who is not under arrest and they are not under twenty-one, Mr. Taylor advises that they not take the field sobriety tests.

Show Transcript

Transcript

Well, first, don’t flunk the attitude test and by that I mean be cooperative, be polite, but you don’t have to volunteer information and you don’t have to comply with the officer’s every request. For example, if he asks you a series of questions you are not required to answer the questions. There is nothing legally requiring you to answer those questions and I would suggest you not because whatever you say that helps you is not ever going to appear in the arrest report, only the incriminating statements are going to appear in that report. Secondly, he is going to ask you to take a field sobriety test and, again for reasons I will discuss later, I would strongly suggest you decline to do that, again, these field sobriety tests are not required by law and can only hurt you. Third, you may very well be asked to take a PAS or PBT test, which stands for Passive Alcohol Sensor test; it’s a small hand held breath test in the field. Again, you are not required to take that test, unless you’re under the age of twenty-one. If it is offered to you as part of the field sobriety test, that is before you are under arrest and, again, I would suggest you decline because these PAS devices are highly inaccurate.

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DUI Checkpoints

For helpful resources about DUI sobriety checkpoints in Southern California - including advanced information about dates, times and locations where they are planned - visit our "Sobriety Checkpoints: Laws and Locations" section on this website.